Lively yet intriguing, The Body in Performance is a varied collection of essays about this much-discussed area. Posing the question "Why this current preoccupation with the performed body?" the collection of specially commissioned essays from both academics and practitioners - in some cases one and the same person - considers such cutting edge topics as the abject body and performance, censorship and live art, the presentation of violence on stage, carnal art, and the vexed issue of mimesis in the theatre. Drawing variously on the work of Franko B., Orlan, Annie Sprinkle, Karen Finley, and Forced Entertainment, it concludes with a creative piece about a 'Famous New York Performance Artist.' Contributors include Rebecca Schneider whose book The Explicit Body in Performance is a key text in this area, and Joan Lipkin, director and writer.

This book surveys the entire field of body composition as it relates to performance. It includes a clear definition of terminology and a discussion of the various methods for measuring body composition. The authored papers represent a state-of-the-art review of this controversial field and address questions such as: What is a better measure of body compositionâ€"body fat or lean body mass? Does being overweight for one's height really affect performance? The book also addresses the issue of physical appearance as it relates to body fatness and performance. It includes an in-depth discussion of many of the topics of interest to those involved in sports medicine and exercise physiology.

An in-depth and accessible study of the controversial and often shocking issues which surround the use of the female body in performance art.

Nathaniel Stern's 'Interactive Art and Embodiment' defies the world of interactive art and new media from the perspective of the body and identity. It presents the ongoing and emergent processes of embodiment in art and includes immersive descriptions of interactive artworks.

Interest in the relationships between body structure and function in physical activity has persisted for centuries. Body Composition: Health and Performance in Exercise and Sport advances understanding beyond simple descriptions of body physique and composition of athletes and fills gaps in our understanding of the important role of muscle, fat, and bone in facilitating physical performance and health in sports and physically demanding occupations. lt addresses basic, practical, and applied topics in body composition, performance, and health with comprehensive reviews organized in four logical parts: Body Composition Assessment; Physical Activity and Body Composition; Body Composition in Sports and Occupations; and Moderating Factors. This book integrates state-of-the-art knowledge by international experts in the field and produces an evidence-based practical guide for a balanced understanding of the role and use of body composition assessment in physical performance and health for youth and adults. It also provides a needed link between the practice of body composition assessment and its application by members of public health advisory committees that develop national guidelines for diet, physical activity, and health. This book is suitable for students and professionals in sports nutrition, exercise science, kinesiology, and athletic training. Sport administrators and policy-makers for international and national sport federations and organizations, and national intercollegiate and scholastic federations, would also benefit from this book.

Because performance is by its very nature ephemeral, it elicits a desire for what is lost more than any other form of art making. But what is the nature of that desire, and on what models has it been structured? How has it affected the ways in which the history of performance art gets told? In What the Body Cost, Jane Blocker revisits key works in performance art by Carolee Schneemann, Vito Acconci, Hannah Wilke, Yves Klein, Ana Mendieta, and others to challenge earlier critiques that characterize performance, or body art, as a purely revolutionary art form and fail to recognize its reactionary-and sometimes damaging-effects. The scholarship to date on performance art has not, she finds, gone far enough in locating the body at the center of the performance, nor has it acknowledged the psychic, emotional, or social costs exacted on that body. Drawing on the work of critical theorists such as Roland Barthes and Catherine Belsey, as well as queer theory and feminism, What the Body Cost reads against patriarchal and heteronormative tendencies in art history while providing a corrective to the established view that performance art is necessarily transgressive. Instead, Blocker suggests that the historiography of performance art is a postmodern lovers' discourse in which practitioners, historians, and critics alike fervently seek the body while doubting it can ever be found. Jane Blocker is assistant professor of art history at the University of Minnesota and author of Where Is Ana Mendieta? Identity, Performativity, and Exile (1999).

The first volume in this series, Nine Ways of Seeing a Body, explored different conceptions of the body in recent Western history (body as object, body as subject, somatic body, etc.).This new collection highlights 12 contemporary approaches to the body (lenses) that are currently being used by performers or in the context of performance training. The lenses draw on somatic practices like the Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique and Body-Mind Centering, and approaches like Object Relations, Corporeal Feminism and Embodied Cognition. Other chapters illuminate the role of the body in music and devised performance, in experimental opera and in classical Sanskrit theatre. Instead of trying to 'improve' or 'enhance' the performer's body or vocal output, all 12 lenses emphasise the interdependence of body andplace, society, culture and other bodies. They also share the idea of the body as flux rather than fixed identity. Each approach is interlaced with a case study showing how it can be applied in practice. Students, dancers, performers, singers, musicians, directors and choreographers can find their own preferred approach(es) to the body-in-performance amongst the lenses described here and can explore alternatives that might enrich their current vocabulary.